Almost 2 years ago, I taught myself how to knit. I had been crocheting since my Grandmother taught me when I was a kid. But one day I had decided I wanted to be all crafty because my art skills suck and I’d start making stuff!

Jasper gets “crazy kitty eyes” when the yarn comes out.

For the first year I practiced my stitches, learning cables and all kinds of cool things but I was pretty much just making things that were square. Or square-ish. Ya know, scarves and little blankets.

Some time last year I got sick of all things square and was all OMG I’m going to make a sweater!

Yeah right Ash. Yeah right.

First I taught myself how to make mittens. Because making a sweater isn’t easy and I wasn’t going to invest that much money into buying nice yarn for something that had lopsided sleeves and a buttons that don’t line up.

So I practiced.

Am I right Katie?

Many of my friends were the recipients of my “practice”. Yeah I’m talking about you people that got fingerless mitts for Christmas! After knitting almost a dozen mittens, I decided I was going to teach myself how to make SOCKS. Newsflash….socks are a bitch to knit because you’re using super fine yarn and itty bitty needles. But I’m now obsessed with sock knitting. Oh the patterns and the options! So much fun.

I’ve also picked out my sweater pattern, purchased my yarn and started knitting! But knitting a sweater requires focus because the pattern is intricate. So I’m switching between working on my sweater and knitting socks because I can’t work on my sweater while watching TV. Socks are great because they’re small and light andrepetitive. I can knit while watching TV, shove that crap in my purse when I go to my parent’s place or cart it around with me wherever I go (not quite at the knitting on the train to work stage but it’s possible).

But what’s so great about it all is other knitters!!

Knitters are cool!

They’re young (old ladies at heart though), they’re funny, they’re friendly and they’re EVERYWHERE. There’s a bunch of knitting and yarn shops in Toronto and every one I’ve been to has been fun and filled with friendly people. I follow a few YouTube gals that do online knitting tutorials and guess what? You have a question and they will answer the shit out of it! Even at the stores, I mentioned something in passing and this woman was like, oh here I’ll show you how to do that. Knitters love teaching other knitters. They swap patterns the way our mom’s swapped cookie recipes. And it’s fun.

So yeah, I’ve turned into a little old lady carrying around her knitting bag. And guess what? I’m damn proud of it.

Cheers,

Ash

And some more knitting humor for you….

This is totally going to be me when I’m older. Knitting Tattoo’s are totally a thing!Chrissy…not me but TOLD YOU! Don’t drink and knit. It’s BAD. I make socks and shit….

Btw….if you want to see samples of my mad knitting skills….feel free to follow me on Instagram (tahtashgirl83) where I post pictures of my cat, my knitting and random crap

Pass Me Along:

If you know me in real life, you know that Friday the 13th is pretty much my favorite “holiday.” Don’t get me wrong. I love Halloween but it’s become so commercial and everywhere you go it’s crowded with drunken idiots and girls in slutty costumes.

Friday the 13th on the other hand isn’t really a holiday. And it happens a few times a year. And how do I celebrate? Horror Movie Marathons!!! I love horror movies. I know it sounds strange but I enjoy the adrenaline high I get off of being scared. Some people jump out of planes for fun….I just try to scare the crap out of myself.

This year will be doubly fun because I’m using the excuse of V-Day to go all out. I’m also using the excuse that it’s -31C today (that’s like -24F? Who knows….it’s effing cold that’s all that matters) to hibernate and avoid lovey people who are just going to make me feel crappy.

Now for anyone who actually wants to watch something scary, below is a short film that was won Best Short in something called the Who’s There Film Challenge. It’s basically a short horror film competition. This creeped me the hell out and is really well done. It’s also the kinda thing that freaks me out if I watch before bed….which I totally did last night while I was drafting this post. Seriously so well done.

ENJOY!!!

p.s. You totally need sound for this. It’s subtle but it adds a whole other dimension to it.

I mean I know that I spent most of January sick as all heck (and yes I’m still coughing). But seriously.

Personally the month of February is pretty much the worst month ever. If you live North of the Mason-Dixon Line, or worse, North of the 49th Parallel you know that the month of February means snow, slush, freezing rain and GREY. Lots and lots of GREY. It’s brutal. I don’t even remember the last time I saw the sun. And I’m sick of having to bundle on multiple layers in order to not be in pain the second I go outside. Because it’s effing cold out people!!!

Moving on!

Another reason why February sucks is coming up later this week. Yup we’re talking about the V-Day.

Seriously, can there be a worse holiday? If you’re in a relationship, for many there’s a certain amount of pressure to make the day extra special. This reinforces my belief that if you need a special day to remind you to tell your significant other that you love them, or to buy them flowers…you’re probably a jerk and I’m baffled that you even have a SO to begin with. The flip side is that V-Day is just incredibly isolating for us single people. I mean I’ve been seeing hearts and crap in the grocery store since December 27th already. I get it, I’m single. I don’t need the reminder and I don’t need the poor you look when people ask me what my plans are for this weekend. My plans are to watch horror movies, drink wine, knit, read, clean, do laundry, cuddle my kitten and be a regular damn person. K?

That means I’m not going to cry while I drink alone in my apartment. I’m not going to watch chick flicks and moan that nobody loves me but my cat. And I’m certainly not going to go see 50 Shades of Grey. Because guess what? For us single people, V-Day is just ANOTHER DAY. So I’m not going to do anything on Saturday that I wouldn’t do any other cold day in February.

Pass Me Along:

Good Lord it’s the middle of January but Happy New Year Everyone! Sorry for my long absence. It’s been a while. How are ya?

Life is good. Cold but good. The other day it was -22C with the windchill. That’s like -7F for you Americans (good lord that doesn’t make sense to me but whatever….Metric system for the win!!)

I hope everyone had a great Holiday season. I had a pretty busy one. Between Birthday (woo for turning 31), Christmas (woo for new books!) and New Years (woo for finding a cab at 3am!) there was a bunch of parties to go to and lots to eat and drink (woo for not puking!). Which leads me to the belief that I actually need to have a dry January. I drank more in the last 3 weeks than I have in the last 3-4 months. Stretch that….the last 6 months. Let’s just say that I haven’t been too nice to my body. Not enough sleep, not enough healthy food and too much alcohol. So January’s resolution is to get back on track.

*pause* I wrote this post and it sat in drafts because……

Annnnnnd I have Bronchitis. Yeah my lungs hate me. I was running an insane fever and was out of the office for almost a full week. Which considering I haven’t taken a sick day in 3 years is CRAZY. But we’re talking, hacking cold, high fever (102.8F baby!) and there was no way I was coming to work. Heck there was no way I was getting out of bed. And I didn’t. But on the plus side I totally lost weight being on the bronchitis diet with the 24/7 cough ab workout!

But onto happier things.

I’m still knitting up a storm. My lovelies that got knitted gifts for Christmas have encouraged me to up my yarn game so I’m working on Socks. Yup I’m making socks. And sock yarn is a beautiful thing. I mean it’s a bitch to work with because it’s very fine and requires itty bitty needles but it’s pretty and soft and comes in cool hand dyed patterns that stripe on their own!! Yeah self-striping yarn is a thing yo!

I feel like I’ve got so much to catch up on and yet everything feels the same.

How are you all? And how is your New Year going?

Cheers,

Ash

Cuteness for you just because! No this is not my cat or my knits but seriously….isn’t this something I’d do?!?!?! Poor thing.

Pass Me Along:

This isn’t really a blog post. It’s not really a FTF post. My boss is on vacation for 2 weeks and of course everything that could go wrong is going wrong. We’re handling it, but it’s pretty chaotic, or at least it was the first part of the week.

Anywho. Suffice it to say, I went to bed at 9:45 last night and am feeling a bit more AWAKE today.